American Gas - July 2013 - (Page 10)

digest Continued from page 8 The Florida legislature has passed a major bill to advance the development of NGVs. H.B.579 includes grants and rebates to encourage commercial fleets to buy nGVs and a fiveyear moratorium on the taxation of cnG and LnG to spur market growth of both fuels. The bill also exempts home fueling from taxation. Gov. rick scott signed the bill into law in June. Bridge to Sustainability and Economic Growth,” held at West Virginia University College of Law. Dave McCurdy, president and CEO of AGA, was keynote speaker. —Eric Schoeniger Teracool, a massachusetts-based technology company, has won the Uptime institute’s Green enterprise iT Award in the “Audacious idea” category for technology that links computer data centers and LNG facilities. Using a heat-transfer loop, the solution draws on excess heat from the data center to help vaporize LnG, and surplus refrigeration from the LnG facility to cool the Continued on page 11 Are quicker pipeline approvals coming soon? issues Streamlining the Permitting Process i n May, Congressman Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas) introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives designed to improve the way government agencies approve pipeline projects. The approval process for pipeline projects is overseen by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which conducts environmental analyses of projects. But approval also involves several other federal agencies and, in practice, that crossagency involvement can create delays that make it difficult to move forward with projects. The proposed legislation—the Natural Gas Pipeline Permitting Reform Act—essentially provides firm deadlines to prompt those agencies to make decisions on a more timely basis. The bill addresses concerns highlighted in a December 2012 report from the INGAA Foundation, which looked at the permitting process following the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005). In an attempt to streamline pipeline authorizations, that Act required FERC to establish an approval schedule, and FERC responded by giving reviewing agencies a 90-day deadline. However, agencies often fail to stick to that schedule. Comparing pre- and post-EPAct 2005 project reviews, the report found that the number of agency authorizations that did not meet the 90-day deadline actually increased from 7.69 percent to 28.05 percent. The number of projects that experienced delays exceeding the deadline by 90 days or more increased from 3.42 percent to 19.51 percent. And the number of projects that experienced no review delays dropped from 27.59 percent to 18.18 percent. As the INGAA report noted, “it appears that federal agencies have not complied with EPAct 2005’s requirements for streamlining and expe- Meeting All of Your PiPeline Service needS: Engineering Survey/GIS • Pipeline Integrity • Field Services • Project Management • • 61 6 -392-593 8 HollandEngineering.com A Natural Gas Distribution Management Company Project Development • Asset Acquisitions Engineering and Constructions • Project Finance Account Administration • Compliance Operations and Maintenance • Gas Supply Management Marketing • Customer Service • Billing and Collections 4100 Holiday Street NW Suite 201, Canton Ohio 44718 P: 1.330.498.9130 • F: 1.330.498.9137 1.888.863.0032 www.utilitypipelineltd.com 10 AmericAn GAs JULY 2013 http://www.utilitypipelineltd.com http://www.HollandEngineering.com http://www.HollandEngineering.com http://www.utilitypipelineltd.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Gas - July 2013

American Gas - July 2013
Contents
President’s Message
Subject Index
Shining a Light for Gas Efficiency
Digest
Issues
Issues
Update
Need to Know
By the Numbers
Places
Scratch, Sniff—Evacuate?
Capitol Hill
Cape Canaveral
The Corner Office
AGA Ops Conference
Elm Street
Work in Progress
Profile
For Good Measure
Law
Jobs
Marketplace
Buyer’s Guide
Headway

American Gas - July 2013